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Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the [#permalink]
23 Feb 2010, 22:40

00:00

A

B

C

D

E

Difficulty:

(N/A)

Question Stats:

56%(01:55) correct
44%(00:54) wrong based on 43 sessions

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of school enrollment and room and board for the children, which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.

* which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. * which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. * of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. * both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. * both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

Here don't you think which in option A and B is wrongly point only the board for the children?

Re: Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the [#permalink]
22 Jun 2013, 22:01

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angel2009 wrote:

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of school enrollment and room and board for the children, which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.

* which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. * which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. * of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. * both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. * both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

Here don't you think which in option A and B is wrongly point only the board for the children?

From the standpoint of finding the correct answer, we work by eliminating wrong answer choices to determine what is left. Since we are forced to keep some verison of "which" in all the answer choices we have to look elsewhere. There is an error with the placement of the modifier "with the rest of the family" and answer choices A, D, and E have an ambiguous meaning about agreeing to pay with the family (did they agree with the family or pay with the family or agree to pay with the family). B & C clearly state that the agreement (to pay) was made with the rest of the family. The difference in B & C is between "which" and "of which". "Of which" is typically used to indentify parts of the group and usually includes an additional word like we see in choices D & E ("BOTH of which"). That leaves us with answer choice B.

Now to the question about using the modifier "which" to refer to the costs of enrollment and room and board. There are exceptions that allow us to skip over a noun to get to the noun we want to modify, but the exceptions don't come up much and they are typically short phrases (Picasso's works of art - you could skip over art). Here the sentence really wants us to skip all the way back to "costs" and ignore a pretty massive space between "which" and "costs" (the noun being modified). I do not believe you would ever see the GMAT use a construction like this.

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of school enrollment and room and board for the children, which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.

* which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.* which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.* of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.* both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.* both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

here which covers both "enrollment" and "room & board." i would say "for the children" is a short modifier, and would be one of the few exceptions where you can use which following a short prepositional phrase... (this is my guess, correct me if im wrong please...)

it's kinda silly to say the following: ... x and y, which she agree, for the children...

it's clearer to say: ... x and y for the children, which she agree...

i guess i would naturally be inclined to pick D though... but concision would force me to pick A. _________________

I'm not an expert, but according to Manhattan SC "WHICH" must refer to a noun immediately preceding it. "THAT" sometimes can be used in cases adalfu discussed, not "WHICH".So, my answer is D.

There are some exception to the which-must-follow-noun rulee.g., short modifiers and "mission-critical" modifiers in which you can still have the which following the end of the modifier phrase... i thought this was in the Advanced sections of the MGMAT SC book... correct me if im wrong (i don't have the book w/ me at work). _________________

Re: Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the [#permalink]
22 Jun 2013, 22:30

Expert's post

vibhav wrote:

KyleWiddison, thanks for weighing in here. Wanted to check with you, how did you decide that the meaning conveyed in option B was the originally intended meaning.

The meaning conveyed in choice B is unambiguous (she agreed with the rest of the family that she would pay). In the other options you don't know if she agreed with the rest of the family that she would pay or if she agreed that she would pay along with the rest of the family. In matters of meaning, we can't always know the original intent, so you have to use a process of eliminating choices that have problems like unclear, illogical, or ambiguous meaning.

Re: Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the [#permalink]
14 Jul 2014, 07:10

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Re: Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the [#permalink]
18 Sep 2014, 14:05

Expert's post

alphonsa wrote:

Can someone tell me if the OA is A or B?I find some posts saying A, some saying B.

But if it's B, then wouldn't it be a deviation from the statement given?

In my first post I explain the problem of meaning in option A where the agreement becomes unclear. Did she agree to pay the costs along with the family (the family pays too)? Or, did she agree with the family that she alone would cover the costs? The original sentence has unclear meaning. Changing the position of the modifier in B fixes that ambiguity.

What do you mean when you say "wouldn't it be a deviation from the statement given"?